Nintendo tops ’07 sales numbers in industry’s best year ever

2007 saw Nintendo once again slide comfortably into the number one position in …

The NPD Group has released its numbers for console and software sales for both December and 2007 as a whole. The good news is that 2007 was a huge year for gaming: sales are up 43 percent from 2006, with $17.94 billion in sales in 2007 compared to $12.53 billion in 2006. "While hardware sales realized the greatest percentage growth over 2006 due to the closely scrutinized console hardware transition, each category under the video games industry umbrella reached their own 'personal bests' in terms of annual sales," NPD analyst Anita Frazier wrote. Let's take a look at how each company did.

Nintendo

The DS shows what Nintendo can do with its hardware when it isn't supply-constrained, selling 2.47 million units in December, for a total of 8.5 million units throughout the entire year. Oddly enough, there isn't much standout software for the system, with only Brain Age 2 making it into the software top ten in December, and only Pokemon Diamond making it into the top ten for 2007 overall.

The Wii did very well, but again without enough hardware on shelves it's impossible to say how well it could have done. Nintendo sold 1.35 million Wiis in December, for a total of 6.29 million systems in 2007. For hardware across the entire year, the Nintendo DS came in first, with the Wii a close second.

The one thing the Wii does do is move incredible amounts of software: Super Mario Galaxy sold 1.4 million units in December, and Wii Play sold 1.08 million units. Wii Play is actually the number 2 selling game for the year with 4.12 million units sold, second only to Halo 3. Super Mario Galaxy was the fifth best-selling game of the year with 2.52 million copies cold, and Mario Party 8 came took up the number ten slot with 1.82 million units sold. The Wii had an incredible year, moved a ton of first-party games, and is still hard to find at retail. Amazing.

Nintendo sold more hardware than any other company throughout the year, and that hardware moved a ton of first-party games. The amount of money Nintendo is making this generation seems to be nearly limitless.

Microsoft

The 360 sold a very respectable 1.26 million units in December, with 4.62 million units sold throughout the entire year. That's pretty much the trend for the 360 every month: well below Nintendo's numbers, comfortably above Sony's. The 360 continues to be the place for games though, with Halo 3 being the top selling game of the year with 4.82 million units moved. Call of Duty 4 took the number three slot with 3.04 million units sold, and Assassin's Creed came in ninth with 1.87 million units sold.

For what many consider "hardcore" games, the 360 is the place to be. It reigns supreme in multiplatform games, and Halo 3 is an amazing success story. "Halo 3 captured the top-spot in single-game sales for the year selling 4.8 million units at retail. This performance certainly puts it among the elite in gaming history with performance similar to that of GTA: Vice City in 2002, and GTA: San Andreas and Halo 2 in 2004," Frazier said.

While Microsoft can't match the heights of Nintendo, the 360 did move a good amount of hardware, and proved that it is the home of graphically rich games with strong online play.

Sony

First, the good news. Sony sold 1.06 million pieces of PlayStation Portable hardware, and a solid 1.1 million units of PlayStation 2 hardware, for 3.82 million units and 3.97 million units sold in 2007, respectively. Those businesses are doing fine. The PlayStation 3, however, only sold 797,600 units, the only piece of hardware not measured in millions for the month, and not by a slim margin. The system moved only 2.56 million units in 2007. For the month, the year, and since launch, the PS3 came in dead last.

The PlayStation 2 remains a good home for rhythm and sports games, Guitar Hero 3 took the number three slot in the best-selling games for the month with 1.25 million units sold, and Madden '08 came in number eight with 655,200 units sold. For the year Guitar Hero 3 on the PS2 came in fourth place with 2.72 million units sold, and Madden '08 came in at number seven with 1.90 million units sold. Guitar Hero 2 came in right behind it at number 8 with 1.89 million units sold. The PS3 didn't have any games in the top ten for the month or the year.

Sony did well in December, but on systems it can't depend on in the long term. The company need to get moving on the PS3 front, although if the format war is nearing an end, the system may see a big boost in sales simply as a Blu-ray player.

The NPD Group also stresses just how big Guitar Hero was this year. "If Halo 3 was the game of the year (in terms of sales), one has to recognize the tremendous success of the Guitar Hero franchise. Guitar Hero games sold over $820 million at U.S. retail which is a record for any single franchise in any one year."

Data source: NPD Group

If we can simplify the numbers to a single trend, we arrive at the fact that the gaming industry is very healthy—and growing. 2007 was a grand year for gaming, and while the NPD Group doesn't think we'll see the same amount of growth over year for 2008, Anita Frazier does think we'll see even better sales in 2008. With cultural touchstones like Madden, Guitar Hero, and even Mario making waves not only in the gaming industry but also in pop culture, things are looking very bright for our favorite hobby.